Heard on Provoke in a conversation on:

The futile cycle of “justified violence”:

 “We say ‘never again’…but it is just a battle cry.”

“Violence is never unilateral.”

“I shudder to think that perhaps my brother’s name was written on one of those bombs. I’m not in agreement with our returning violence for violence.”  9/11 Victim who lost her brother in the Twin Towers. US bombers wrote the names of those who died in the towers on bombs they dropped on Afghanistan, and as they dropped them, they yelled, ‘This one’s for you!’

“ I don’t believe that we as a society, and in this case as people of faith within society, rarely present a genuine alternative to violence.”

“Justified violence keeps us from recognizing the humanity of our victims.”

“What we have is a crisis of imagination. It is the inability to think beyond the power of violence.”

“You’re not going to get rid of war by having peace movements. Peace movements include what they’re against.  You don’t get rid of violence by being against it. You only get rid of violence when people don’t need it. When they’ve got something more powerful and effective that they can use.”

“War never brings what everyone wants…a lasting peace. “

The death penalty:

 “Yeah, they can quote it to me in chorus. They never quote ‘love your  enemies.’ ” Sr. Helen Prejean, referring to the fact that people always quote   ‘an eye for an eye’,  but never the Christian message of forgiveness.

 “Because you’re better than I am.” The reason given by a death row inmate for why he should not be executed.

“I couldn’t believe how human he looked.” What Prejean thought when she met her first death row inmate.

“I remember thinking to myself whatever he has done, he is worth more than the worst action of his life.” Prejean upon that encounter.

The common good:

“Wherever there is hurt, that hurt has a claim on you.”

“People do this in the world. And it’s not extraordinary. It’s not time limited and it’s not a business arrangement. They just share. Because someone needs it and someone has it. “

“We may not solve poverty or any of the other myriad of problems the world faces. But I still come back to the question: ‘What did I do about it?’”

“Society finds a way to afford the things it values.  We have 2 stadiums, but a crumbling school system.”

“That seems to be a real problem in America today. Everybody seems to have rights. But, nobody seems to have obligations anymore.”

 “Politics has become a selfish struggle for power rather than a search for the common good. “

The need for more people to work in the non-profit sector:

“They don’t run for public office and they don’t get on American Idol. But they’re out there.”

“People would look at me and say, ‘Are you crazy? Why are you wasting your time?’ And the truth is, I think you need business people in the non-profit world.  I really believe that you do.” Business school grad  explaining the reaction of her fellow MBA candidates when she told them she wanted to work in the non-profit world."

Bringing up children in today’s world:

 “We do think it’s important to show our child a life where it’s easy to be holy.”

“I’m quite convinced the spiritual dangers in the suburbs are far more dangerous (than the city).”

The dangers of extremism:

“As soon as you think ideologically, somewhere in there is a victim whose voice is not being heard and whose plight is not being  acknowledged.”

“Any time we build social solidarities on the basis of shared antipathies, we’re moving in the wrong direction. “

 “We see the same kind of fundamentalism toward the US Constitution that we see towards  the Scriptures.”

America’s over-consumption and materialism:

 “Most of us would like to see the poor get more. It comes as a shock to realize this will require that we take less.”

 “We’ve always lived below our means”

“Convenience and pleasures have become necessities and we’ve convinced ourselves of the necessity… of everything.”

“The American dream has become a nightmare.”

“We are projecting a Western way of living way beyond the sort of limits of our own societies. And I think the assumption is made that the Christian tradition brings no critique to that.”

The persistence of segregation in the U.S.:

“It’s certainly not our churches!” In answer to the question, ‘What is the most integrated area of American society today?”

The social justice message of the Gospels:

“If one clipped out everything that Jesus said in dealing with poverty and injustice and oppression, you wouldn’t have much of the Gospels left. “

“We aren’t asked to feel good about the Samaritan. We’re called and commanded to act like him. “

“Between the rhetoric of Christianity and the reality falls a large shadow.”

“If there is something specifically “Christian” in our teachings it is certainly the love of enemies. And this has been completely forgotten by many Christians.”

Inter-religious dialogue:

“Whatever conforms with the truth, whatever’s true, we happily and gratefully accept. Whether the truth teller is of our faith or not is totally unimportant.”

“The idea of sealing ourselves off from the ideas and beliefs of the Other, whether we consider the other the Muslim, the Christian or the Jew. I mean, it’s just impossible. The idea is just absurd.”

The working poor:

 “I don’t have a bank account. I don’t even have a piggy bank. “

“Being poor can be really expensive.”

“I would say, try to live on $8 an hour for one month.” Said to those who deny there is poverty in America.

Solidarity with the poor and marginalized:

“It’s not just concept. It’s contact.”

 “It’s hard to be in solidarity if you’re not with the people.”

“I think that is the thing that above all other things that has led to the deterioration of the neighborhood. “ Guest referring to the absence of (Catholic) churches in the inner city.

“The Gospel leads you to the people and the people lead you to the Gospel.”

“Share.” One poor person’s answer to the question, ‘How can those who have, help?’

Justice vs. charity:

“ Justice calls for me to change.  And I’d much rather you change than I change.  And I think that is part of the challenge that we’re talking about.”

“That’s where many, many people get very nervous…. having to criticize built in structures of our society that keep the poor in their conditions.”

Being a young Black male in America:

“Very early on in life I think a lot of these young men look down the road and see that their prospects aren’t very attractive and they disengage early.”

“You’re living very much a day to day existence and you probably don’t expect to live very long. You don’t have a great, strong sense of the future.”

Shifting World Views:

“The old paradigm always presupposed an enemy. Indeed, a traditional enemy. The new paradigm seeks partners.”

“And if, in the new paradigm, truth is not a supreme value then we cannot have peace among the nations.”

“Self interest is only enlightened if you are following certain ethical standards.”

The prison system in the U.S.:

“We need a leader who can go to those religious communities and change their focus into not so much a focus of evangelization (of prisoners) but a focus of fellowship and of mentoring to these men and women.”

“I call it (the prisons) our social trash compactor.”

“There are people with financial interests in keeping the prisons full.”

“The prison system is broken.  And I don’t know any businessman with French cuffs and cuff links sitting in a boardroom who wouldn’t say the same thing.  A very conservative guy who voted for Ronald Reagan, and all the Bushes would say the same thing. This is not working. That’s not a good model. That’s broken.  Let’s fix it. So, I can give you the market argument for this. It doesn’t require the altruistic, moral liberal, argument. Which, I’d be happy to give you too.”

Immigration and the flaw of globalization:

“Those agreements, they allow for goods and services to cross borders, but they don’t allow for people to cross borders.”

“Immigration is never about the movement of people. It’s about economics. It’s about labor. It’s about diplomacy. It’s about international relations. And what we have is kind of a piecemeal system.”

“What we ask people to do is to try and identify with the immigrants.  And one way to do that is to think about your own ancestors.”

How a homeless shelter measures success:

“Everyday, we see on average about 70 people, for whom it’s better to be warm and dry than it is to be cold and wet.”

Genocide in Darfur:

 “We can’t simply let it  (genocide) fall trippingly off our tongues, as has occurred already in the 20th century.”

“You can’t do everything. But you can do something. And if you’re going to do something, it would seem to me that first on your list ought to be stopping genocide.”

“Wearing a ribbon in solidarity is not going to cut it. Sponsoring a congressional resolution to honor the dead after the fact is not going to cut it.”

“It’s an emotional bond that I have with the people over there. Just because I’m a young mother who loves my children more than anything on this earth, and I’m sure there are young mothers over there who have the same depth of love for their children.” A young Indiana mother’s explanation for why she became an advocate for the people of Darfur.

Failing public school systems:

“And the message we give kids is they don’t matter and we don’t care.”

“I think it’s extremely hypocritical in the United States to pretend that money doesn’t matter, it matters in every single other thing that we do, why wouldn’t it matter in education?”

“You know, when people say, ‘More money is not going to solve the problem,” well, it seems to be working in the private schools. I mean, we pay a lot of money to send our kids to private schools, those of us who can, and we feel like we get what we pay for.”

What those who work for social justice believe:

 “To do this work and to believe in God is very difficult, but to do the work and not believe, that is impossible.”

“Nothing is pure and grace is everywhere.”